Last weekend my mom, dad, and I headed up to Albuquerque for the "First Glance, Second Look" gallery opening. The Albuquerque Photographers Gallery hosted a juried art show for people around the nation. 68 images were submitted and 30 were accepted. The furthest entry came from Minnesota. This was the first time I had entered another show in New Mexico so I was a little nervous stepping out of my comfort zone of the Roswell show. After seeing that two out of three of my pieces got into the show, my nervous relaxed a little bit. We got to the opening Friday night and since I had to drop my work off a couple weeks ago, I had seen already what the gallery in Old Town had to offer. It's a cute little gallery on the second story overnight looking Old Town Square. We walked around checking out all the amazing photos that were accepted. I was fascinated with Knate Meyers photos of milky ways and the Sandia Mountains. If you've never seen his work, you MUST check it out. He was there and so I had to meet him and fan girled over his work. 6:15 rolled around and we were thinking about leaving due to the gallery emptying out, but Michael Mock announced they were about to announce the winners of the show. We headed to the front of the gallery and waited. He announced the third place then the second place. After seeing what they picked for those awards, I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to place. My image wasn't "fine art" enough to place. Michael started to say who won first place and said the title of my piece. It didn't register until my mom made her crazy excited face and he looked at me. I was very shocked that the judges saw something in my photo created with my brother, mom, Rob, and flour. So I walked to the front and accepted the 20x30 metal print certificate for one of my photos to be printed. I walked back to my family and one of the ladies I was chatting with came up and hugged me saying "YAYYYY!" After we left, I called Dallas and his response "I TOLD YOU YOU WOULD WIN!! I TOLD YOU SO!" Then Ryan called me and I told him how popular his photo was. His response, "What'd I win for you?" Typical brother response. Haha 

The next morning we got up at 4:00 am and headed out to the International Balloon Fiesta. After going out last year a distinct in traffic for two hours, it was quite a shock this year when it only took us about 15 minutes to get into the park. So we sat for about an hour and half waiting for the balloon glow to start. That w one thing I didn't get to see last year due to traffic. It was really pretty seeing the balloons all lit up. Mass Ascension was supposed to take place around 7:30 but due to weather and a very uncommon problem of not having any wind, the balloons had to wait until there was a little bit of a breeze so it wasn't a static lift off and all the balloons just go straight up. We walked around and found the crew that Southwest Printers always sponsors when they come to Roswell during our festival. We chatted about the weather and how the first day was. Pretty quickly after we talked to them, the balloons started inflating and heading off in the sky. It was super cloudy but still New Mexico beautiful. One of the exciting things that happened during the fiesta was Snapchat decided to feature their event on the app. So I sent in like 20 snaps to be featured on the Snapchat story. And guess what... ONE OF THEM GOT PICKED!! Ryan texted me saying that one of his friends saw me on it and texted him. Then I started to receive lovely screenshots from some of my friends telling me I was on it. 

When we got back to town, it was fair week in Roswell. Every year my mom and I take our art to put in the arts and crafts part of the fair. Well this year, we went on Wednesday and two of my photos had won the Best of Show and were category winners. :D It was just the cherry on the top of my week.

Overall I'd say this week was a good one and full of excitement. It was a great way to bring in October. So back to work on all my sessions last month and coming up. So check back for more blog posts to come. Happy October y'all!!